


Treasure Hunt

by Oceanbourne



Category: League of Legends
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9077434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oceanbourne/pseuds/Oceanbourne
Summary: The escape route doesn't go as smoothly as they had hoped.





	

Noon. Talon does not consider himself nocturnal, rather a creature of the twilight, but he despises the middle of the day. The shadows just aren’t long enough to meld into their framework.

So what he must give up in stealth, he makes up for with speed. The bolt of a crossbow whizzes past his ear as he ducks behind a pillar, dropping to his knees and rolling along the walkway of the stone ramparts to avoid the next two shots. Talon tosses a dagger in a wide arc, its point directed towards the guardsman. While the man backs away and sidesteps to avoid the lethal projectile, he rushes forward, setting the guard off balance. While his opponent reaches out to steady himself, Talon grips their wrist, twisting hard to throw the man onto the ground. Plunging a second dagger into the exposed throat of the guard, he pilfers a set of keys from a chain latched onto the belt hanging around the dead man’s trousers. Making his way into the guard tower that separates sections of the outer wall, Talon pauses in the corridor for any approaching guards.

The clank of boots along stone indicate the new arrival walking up the staircase, and Talon peers around from his vantage point, noting how this one’s helmet wraps all the way around the back to give no easy access to the throat. He begins formulating a plan when a figure clad in grey appears out of thin air in front of the guard, brandishing a dagger and sticking it in between two plates of armor. The guard cries out, setting his spear and wildly stabbing at the grey figure, who steps to the side, brown hair flying at the sudden movement.

Talon appears from behind the guard, knocking the spear out of his hand, where it falls to the ground with a clank. Throwing a punch with an armblade fitted to the wrist, his eyes widen when the guard intercepts it with his own arm, colliding with the stone wall and causing Talon to draw back, swearing in pain. No longer shaken by the element of surprise, the guard draws a sword from their belt, slashing at Talon with a vicious diagonal strike.

He manages to divert the swing with a well-positioned dagger, but Talon’s forced to back away to where the man’s length advantage cannot reach him. The guard turns their attention to Lux, but the mage gives a split-second warning to Talon and she emits a blinding ray of light. While Talon manages to avert his gaze in time, the guard cries out, backing up towards the wall and arms reaching out in a vain effort to clasp onto anything.

His hand still throbbing from the impact, Talon picks up the fallen spear and with a powerful two-handed thrust jabs it through the chain mail, skewering the guard against the wall. They have no time to confirm his death, as Talon gestures at Lux and indicates they keep going. Running down the staircase, they reach a balcony on the second floor, spying a landing route that requires breaking their fall by landing onto a couple of waste disposal bins.

Without a second thought, Talon sprints towards the ledge, legs leaving the ground and an outstretched arm pushing off the railing to give him the clearance he needs to propel himself into the air. Landing hard onto the receptacles, he takes a moment to reconfigure his balance as he hears a thump next to him, Lux rubbing an elbow at the sharp angle of her impact.

“You secured the documents?” Talon asks, and he turns away to lead them out of the alley when she nods.

Noon time also meant another thing: inordinate amounts of traffic. The side streets are nowhere as crowded as the main avenues, but a myriad of peoples attempt to jostle their way through the crowd, hoping to make it down to the river where the streets open up to the piers. For the pair of infiltrators, the most difficult leg of the journey is behind them, though they must still ensure that no informants follow them to the safe house where they will take an underground passage back to the du Couteau manor.

They move in single file, with Talon ordering Lux to take the lead since she holds the crucial documents. Down the pavement they zigzag as fast as possible, the walkway slippery from the morning’s rain.

When they come to the bottom of the hill, a gathered crowd and the appearance of a couple of silver-tinted carriages causes his heart to stop for a second. Thornwood’s men. He and Lux keep close to the buildings, taking every inch they can get without making unnecessary attention.

“The du Couteau’s street rat is here, in the Grunberg district!” a middle-aged man with a walking stick announces to the crowd. “With him is a brown-haired girl in her early twenties.” Next to him, one of Thornwood’s hired guards holds up a poster, print in large size so even the poorest eyesight can make out their features.

In front of him, Lux holds back her gasp, and Talon scowls as well. Whoever came across their likenesses has an eerily accurate description. He thinks of several questions - such as how did anyone come across their faces? but he focuses on the task at hand, looking for an escape path.

“Clear the road!” the man yells, and Talon follows the crowd’s gaze, where he realizes the source of the crowd’s disruption. In the middle of the avenue, not twenty feet from the horses drawing the carriages, lies a woman kneeling over a small child. The mother, Talon presumes, gently tugs at the child’s arm, but with a desperation born out of the knowledge that Thornwood’s men have already exhausted their patience. It’s a sprained ankle, Talon realizes, noticing the twisted angle of the leg. But the mother doesn’t have the strength to lift the child as well, he judges by the amount of bags that the hooded woman has slung over her back.

The man with the walking stick’s temper has already blown. “If you are not going to clear the path, we will carve one out ourselves!”

In front of him, Lux stiffens, stealing a wide-eyed glance that betrays a concern that should have long left anyone who has frequented Noxus’ streets as she has. Talon grits his teeth. Behind the carriages, Talon can make out a path underneath the bridge, where people have begun to pass by so they can a clear look at the proceedings. They would have to move fast. Scores of the people in the crowd are already sifting through the faces of their neighbors, each ready to reap the rewards promised for exposing people of their level of notoriety.

Near the front of the crowd, on the opposite side of the man with the walking stick, a man cries out in pain. The crowd’s attention shifts for a crucial few seconds, and Talon nudges Lux’s elbow, pointing in the direction he had just envisioned. He pushes through the crowd, not waiting to see if she can follow. Accusatory shouts rise up from the far end of the masses, blocking out any noise the people this side of the crowd might have made at their hurried escape.

Lux spares one last glance at the kneeling woman and child before she disappears around the bend in the underbelly of the bridge.

When they arrive at the safe house, Talon takes a moment to unwrap an apple he has snatched from an unwary street vendor on the way. Lux appears in front of him, a coldness in her eyes. “You threw that dagger, didn’t you?”

Talon swallows. “I had to create a diversion.”

“Do you know how close you were to blowing our cover?”

“The street urchins that hang around Grunberg have no patience for each other.” He returns her glare with a patient look, his breathing even. “I know them better than anyone else. They’d sooner sink a knife between another’s ribs than know you long enough to take your name.”

“He wasn’t in our way,” Lux protests, her fingers curling into a fist, but she cannot keep it compact enough, and her digits continue twitching as she speaks. “It’s not like you to be so… messy.”

“We both know you couldn’t stand to see the sight of that little whelp being flattened by Thornwood’s horses.”

Lux’s breath catches in her throat. Talon turns his eyes away, unsure of his own actions himself. He acted out of instinct, yes, but this instinct did not spring up out of a need to survive.

“…it’s Noxus. You know how life goes.”

“That look you gave me back there had no trace of Noxian sentiment.”

Lux crosses her arms, a little hmph escaping her lips. “But… why?”

“I can’t stand it when you get all broody. You act like Kat and you never give me straight answers.” Talon’s tone grows softer. “It’s just like when I asked you about why you did what you did, back in the passages underneath the baron’s manor. You can’t live yourself if you just stand by without acting. So I did it for you.”

The next look Lux gives him can shatter glass. “Since when do you act like this? You were never - you don’t…” Her brow creases, and it seems like her words and the thoughts trying to break through the surface are fighting a war with each other. “You’re never as simple as I thought you’d be.”

“What do you take me for? Some kind of murder tool for the du Couteaus?”

“No,” Lux whispers. “Never a murderer. But not someone I’d expect to care.”

Talon straightens up, hands instinctively going to his daggers. Yet he’d never turn one of them on Lux. There’s just no need to.

“Do you think you can watch me, like some kind of secret you can snatch away from behind a stone vault, and learn everything about me in a matter of months?”

“No!” Her defiance is louder this time. “You’ve just never given any thought to anything past Marcus or your own survival.” Talon knows that look, the same kind the general would say he wore whenever he struggled with his letters. The frustration of someone who realizes the answer they’ve come up with no longer fits their problem.

“You’ve… never cared.”

Talon doesn’t know when he’s closed the distance, but his hands are around Lux, and his lips are on hers, and he knows he must feel as brittle as the rust on a jagged blade, but he’s decided there won’t be a better time.

When he pulls back, Lux’s mouth is wide open, sucking in her surprise but unable to spit back a reply. Talon looks at her, then at the ground, before shrugging and leaning back against the wall.

“And now you’re going to ask why again.”

Lux smirks. “If I do, are you going to kiss me again?”

Sighing, Talon starts walking to the exit of the safe house. “There’s something you’ve found in a place where you were expected to lose everything.” When he gestures for Lux to go first, his hand lingers on the small of her back for an extra second.

Lux’s gaze fixes on him, waiting for a more complete explanation.

“I want to know how you ended up with it.”


End file.
